When you look at the numbers below, you might be inclined to think that this past week was not as hard as the week where I spent time in South Carolina. You would be wrong. Hard to me is not dependent only on volume; it depends on intensity. And this was, by far, the most intense swimming and cycling I've ever done. EVER! Running didn't need to enter into the picture that much, since I've built a solid run base since, well, last September.
To give you an idea of my running base, since September I've completed 20 runs of 1:30-2:00, 10 runs of 2:00+, and 2 full marathons. That's over 36 weeks, so 32 out of 36 weeks I've run 1:30+. That's what's known as consistency. One of the measures of Ironman training success is the ability (and I'm quoting my coach here) to do at least a 1:30 run every week, from now until forever. That distance of run will prepare most folks for a half or full Ironman.
So this past week we did not need to worry about my running, as I needed to polish off some very serious cycling.
Since I'm just an average swimmer, and swimming tends to be a good recovery vehicle (for strong swimmers; and I may not be fast but I am strong), we also did some overdistance swimming this week. I already knew my endurance was there; but this week we did long, muscular endurance sets. ME sets are characterized by short rest intervals. They force you to swim at a pace that is close to your "continuous" pace. For example, 3x500 with 15" RI. 15" of rest ain't much; so you can't swim the 500's too much faster than you would if you were swimming 1500 straight.
The week would have been hard enough just based on the above; but life decided to make it more difficult for me with the passing of my mother. If you think I didn't think about that during every single workout, you would be wrong. I did. Just as it's important during an Ironman to hold your emotions at bay until the end (trust me, there's plenty of time at the finish line to get all choked up and such, so why ruin your actual race by wasting that energy on the race course?), I needed to practice this week. And by that I mean just not crying during my workouts! I feel very intensely and deeply; but it's mostly just that--feeling. I have learned over the past 8 months to simply be with my thoughts and emotions, and not judge them or go into the past or future over them. This is the same technique that I apply to managing my ability to push during workouts. If you can just be with the sensation of discomfort or effort (I prefer to think of it as effort) instead of getting emotional about it or comparing it to your past efforts or worrying about your future efforts, you will be able to achieve what you set out to do.
I did 2 "epic" swim workouts this week, and even better, I did them back to back on Wednesday and Thursday, because I needed Friday clear for the funeral. Sure, I could have skipped one of the workouts or shortened one, but I made a commitment to myself, to my training, and to my parents to not bag my goals. Wednesday was 4,600 yards, and Thursday was 3,900 yards. And then on Thursday mid-day I went and ran 2 hours. Part of my pea brain was saying that I should be running abysmally, since Wednesday I did a big swim and a 1-hour tempo run, and then I did the big swim on Thursday morning. The other part of my pea brain reminded me that I am incredibly strong, and while I shouldn't dismiss the effort as "no big deal," that I would be able to get through it. I did do my hilly trail run that day, and I nearly PR'ed my half marathon that day. By "nearly," I mean that I ran very strongly for 9 miles, then I had to climb out of the hole (it's about 1 mile up at a decent pitch), which temporarily demoralized me, then I remembered I needed to do 20' of tempo work, so I just willed myself to run very close to my 10K pace somehow, and then I realized I was, indeed tired, and cruised the last mile in.
Friday was a full day off. In the back of my mind I really wanted to fit in my second abs/core workout, but if ever I felt completely exhausted, it was at the end of that day, so the thought quickly passed. And I needed to be rested and ready to go for the weekend of pure hell. Well, not quite hell, but very challenging, focused riding. The stuff that is way harder than the Ironman ride. The stuff that tests your commitment to the training and your desire to be good at this Ironman thing; to not just finish the race, but to have raced it.
Saturday's plan called for a 5-hour ride followed by a :30 run as follows: WU: 120' @ 65-70%, MS: 2 x (40' @ 88-90%, 10' Easy), 20' Easy, then 1 x 20' @ FT. Remainder (90') is 80-85%, as you feel. The weather was windy (thank you!), but this day it was also on the cool side (around 50), and rain was expected in the afternoon. I wore lightweight running tights over my bike shorts and put on the arm warmers, and I was still slightly chilled. I got out the door at 8:15. I started out tired, and during the 2-hour warmup, it felt like I was struggling. I thought I was close to hitting the required watts, but it didn't feel easy. It made me wonder how I would get through the remaining even more difficult stuff. I rode into Fermilab again, and found the lab where one of my cousins works (I had forgotten about that until mom's funeral, and then he (Ed) and I had a nice discussion about circling around where he works), and at about 2 hours in, the first raindrops began falling. All I could think was how dreadful it would be to finish a 5-hour ride on the trainer (and while I might be inclined to use the algorithm that 1.5 x trainer time = outdoor time, I wasn't going to shorten ANYTHING this week), so would I rather put up with rain, or would I rather put up with being on the trainer? It's amazing how long such a small thought can entertain you while you are riding solo doing focused work, and my legs were kicking in just fine on the first HIM interval, and the rain wasn't hard, so I just kept going. I looked at the sky periodically and figured it wasn't going to rain too hard. It was mostly just sprinkles, but when you are kicking out watts, it seems you are being pelted. So I just kept circling in Fermilab. The watts were coming, but at some point I made a deal with myself: finish all the really hard stuff, and then finish up the last bit on the trainer. It was a good decision. When I was about 8 miles from home (which was enough time to do the FT interval and then some), it began raining harder. This was all the encouragement I needed to push really, really hard. I hit normalized watts of 176 for the interval. Pretty good into a headwind and now driving rain. Motivation to get home fast. When I was almost home, since I knew I would need to run on the treadmill and my bike was a mess, I made an executive decision to just head to the Y and finish up :45 on the Precor bike. Did I really need to bike more? No. But to me it was a matter of principle for the week. No wimping out, no stiffing my workouts for any reason. So I get to the Y and some man gets on the Precor next to me and wants to have a conversation. It was the usual bullshit about how he wants to have a better physique (while eyeballing mine up and down despite the fact that I stunk to high heaven). I wasn't really in the mood for this, so I told him this: You have to really want it, or else don't waste your time. He had all the usual excuses: my wife buys cookies (I told him to just not eat them); I want to emulate someone else's diet exactly (I told him that won't work--he is not that person). It was one of those days where I was so happy to need to run! Despite the several costume changes and equipment changes, the run felt good. Of course, I ran an extra 5', as part of this week's commitment. When all was said and done, my total riding time was 5:14. I actually averaged higher watts than required during much of the ride, and overall (thanks, Rich, for pointing this out to me), I average close to what my FTP had been last fall! There's real progress!
Yesterday, I knew I'd be on the trainer for the full time, since the forecast called for rain all day, and the forecast did not disappoint. My workout was 4 hours like this: WU: 60' @ 65-70% MS: 1 x (40' @ 88-90%, 10' Easy), 20' Easy, then 1 x 20' @ FT. Remainder (100') is 80-85%, as you feel. Ugh. Did I really want to spend 4 hours on the trainer? Hell no. Would I? Yep. Did I? Yep. It was hard. When I woke up, I felt pretty darn trashed. A combination of having already put in 17 hours of training, a hard ride the day before, and I'm pretty sure I didn't make up all 3,000 calories I had burned on Saturday. So there were 2 pots of coffee before I started, which helped a little. I always allow myself one out in a workout: if it ain't happening, just do the best you can. But I managed to do what I needed to, and got the job done.
Here are the happy totals.
Weekly Totals 04/24/2006-04/30/2006
Swim: 11550 yards in 4.07 hours; 19% of weekly workout time; approx. 1423 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 191.33 miles in 10.93 hours; 52% of weekly workout time; approx. 4747 calories burned
Run: Approx. 32 miles in 4.88 hours; 23% of weekly workout time; approx. 2686 calories burned
Strength: 1.12 hours; 5% of weekly workout time; approx. 280 calories burned
All Sports: 21 hours; approx. 9136 calories burned (Blackjack!)
Sleep: 8.42 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2 hours
Season Totals 09/12/2005-04/30/2006
Swim: 278550 yards in 98.58 hours
Bike: Approx. 2749.92 miles in 158.42 hours
Run: Approx. 963.48 miles in 151.39 hours
Strength: 50.11 hours
All Sports: 458.5 hours; approx. 204090 calories burned
Stretching: 49.79 hours
Season Weekly Averages 09/12/2005-04/30/2006
Swim: 8441 yards in 2.99 hours
Bike: Approx. 83.33 miles in 4.8 hours
Run: Approx. 29.2 miles in 4.59 hours
Strength: 1.52 hours
All Sports: 13.89 hours
Sleep: 8.47 hours avg./night
Stretching: 2.16 hours avg./week
Goals from Last Week:
- Average 8+ hours of sleep per night. DONE.
- Get in at least 2 hours of stretching for the week. DONE.
- Keep up the mental focus. This is the hardest week of all. DONE.
- Stay mentally strong for my family and myself. DONE.
- Stay on top of my nutrition. Close, but no cigar. It was tough to keep up my normal eat-every-2 hours schedule through Thursday. I did the best I could.
- Keep my head in the game during every key workout. DONE.
Accomplishments This Week:
- Completed every workout per instructions, even adding time to almost all of them.
- Kept myself together.
Goals for Next Week:
- Average 8+ hours of sleep per night.
- Stretch over 2 hours for the week.
- Begin race visualization. Race Rehearsal weekend this weekend!
- Watch nutrition, as my training hours begin to decrease
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